Meeting

NIHR’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights convenes its 4th Regular Meeting

20 Aug 2017

The National Institution for Human Rights (NIHR)’s Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights convened its 4th regular meeting, under the chairpersonship of Ms. Maria Khouri and membership of Dr. Hameed Ahmed Hussein and Dr. Aisha Salem Mubarak. The meeting was held at the NIHR’s headquarters in the Seef District.

The Committee reviewed the procedures and conditions for persons aged 60 years and above to obtain health insurance from private companies in the Kingdom of Bahrain and concluded that the Committee and the Secretariat-General would study the relevant legislation to determine the compatibility of insurance companies' procedures with international human rights standards and the international obligations of the Kingdom of Bahrain to protect the rights of the elderly.

In addition, within the framework of the Committee’s terms of reference to review legal guarantees for the exercise of economic, social and cultural rights, the Committee decided to organize a number of meetings with the Bahrain Association of Recruitment Offices to consider the domestic labor rights issue, as well as to establish a memorandum of understanding with it for cooperation to develop an awareness strategy on the protection of the rights of both the public and the employer. It was also agreed to study a joint cooperation mechanism.

Within its current work plans, the Committee considered activating its social and human rights role by conducting field visits to nursing homes and other humanitarian care centres for people with special needs in order to get a closer look at the humanitarian and social care received by those groups to ensure continuity of services.